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Writer's pictureBob McKnight

Our Longest Quagmire


Even though the Presidential debates and discussions have degenerated into petty name calling and who tells more lies, a festering international crises is getting worse, almost without any discussion by the candidates--and it shows signs of becoming our country's worst international quagmire. Maybe ever.

I am talking about the Civil War in Syria. Consider these serious implications:

1. The round the clock fighting is starting it's 6th straight year, maybe longer than any of our wars.

2. Although Syrian President Assad had allegedly gassed his citizens opposing his regime for years, the current war really started as part of the 'Arab Spring' in 2011. You will recall that a number of countries, prompted by the spread of social media, deposed alleged dictators in the region, Egypt being the largest. The Obama Administration fell into the uprising in Syria, without solid intelligence, seemingly again. We either misread or blew off the intricate military and financial ties of Russian Premier Putin with Assad, and encouraged a takeover of Assad without a replacement or specific plan in the wings.

3. When Obama drew a line in the sand on Assad using chemical weapons on his uprising citizens, Putin emerged to force Assad to remove the weapons. This peaceful solution gave Obama a 2012 election year solution without war. But it also further strengthened Putin in the region, in addition to his clandestine conquests in the Ukraine and elsewhere.

4. With Putin's apparent secret international conquest plan, Russia became more aggressive around the world, breaking off any relationship with Obama. My sense is this is when Putin decided to align himself with future Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, advancing numerous financial opportunities to the probably broke lunatic. Putin engaged in multiple electronic spying sorties against our country, without response, among other provocations.

5. And the clincher was when Putin offered to fight ISIS in Syria, alongside the U.S. Obama, reeling from his earlier ISIS misjudgment and with a new presidential election looming, stayed quiet. A highly publicized peace agreement with Russia and the U.S. in bombing Allepo recently vanquished, maybe deliberately.

6. Now we Syrian refugees spread all over the world, fueling ugly clashes between the right and the left in dozens of countries on how to handle the exploding refugee 'invasion.' The bombing in Allepo and throughout Syria continues unrelentingly.

This crises is getting worse and worse and I predict it will be our central foreign policy quagmire for longer than any war we have ever fought. And almost nobody is talking about it.

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